THE POISON GARDEN website

After eleven years, this site will close on 20th April 2019. Thank you for visiting. I will continue to Tweet about stories concerning poisonous plants.

Pontifications on Poison

Being some ramblings on events associated with poisonous plants.

Friday 11th November 2011

War and remembrance

Given the date, I thought I would have a brief look at the way
some of the plants featured on this website have some connection
to soldiers and war. In each case, there’s a link to the full
plant page if you want to read more about the plant concerned.

With one or two exceptions there is an element of following a
timeline from ancient history to the present day but it is not,
by any means, a perfect trail.

Aconitum napellus, monkshood, is reported to have been used
two ways in warfare. Especially in Asia and in lands bordering
the northern Pacific Ocean, extracts from the plant are said to
have been smeared onto arrows to increase the chance of
inflicting death. As well as putting the poison on the arrow
head it is said that the shaft would be smeared so that anyone
going to the assistance of a wounded comrade might also be
poisoned.

Its other use was to poison sources of water. It is,
sometimes, said that this would be done to force the surrender
of a besieged castle but it seems more likely that its use was
by a retreating army being pursued. The distinctive taste of
monkshood would be likely to result in it being recognised so
that the pursuers would conclude there was no drinkable water
available if they continued the pursuit.

Veratrum album, white hellebore is said, by some, to have
been the cause of Alexander the Great’s death. I wrote about
that in detail on
24th
October so, today, I just want to speculate that, if this
plant did kill Alexander, it may have saved many, many lives by
bringing his plan to conquer the whole world to a premature end.

Amanita muscaria, fly agaric, is frequently said to have
been used by part of a Viking army because its hallucinogenic
effects would make these men fearless, terrible opponents. This
is not universally accepted but what isn’t in doubt is that the
name given to these warriors – Berserkers – is still part of our
language.

Datura stramonium gets one of its common names, jimsonweed,
from an incident in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1679 when soldiers
used the leaves to make salad because they were short of food
but it is also the plant believed to have caused mass
hallucinations in 38 A.D. when Antony’s Roman troops were in
retreat from the Parthians.

Taxus baccata, yew, is famous as the wood used to make the
English longbow that is credited with giving England the upper
hand against opponents using crossbows. But it wasn’t the good
fortune of having yew trees available that resulted in this
different weapon choice. English yew does not grow straight
enough and the yew wood from which longbows were fashioned was
imported from Europe.

Papaver somniferum, opium poppy, makes its first appearance
in our timeline in the 19th century when it was responsible for
the wars between Britain and China.
Camellia sinensis, tea, is also key to those wars. The
British appetite for tea exploded in the early part of the 19th
century and huge amounts of silver were paid to the Chinese to
satisfy the demand. The UK realised it could create a more
balanced trade by encouraging the Chinese demand for opium.
Opium was almost the only medication available to a population
that had around one doctor for every 100,000 people so it was
quite easy to tap into that and build addiction upon it. It is
fairly generally agreed that Britain has much to regret from
that period.

The opium poppy is, of course, still an important component
of the ten years (so far and still going) war in Afghanistan.
Those who say the war is not about eradicating opium growing may
well be right but there is no doubt that opium has financed many
of the insurgents activities and has, therefore, caused the
deaths of many British servicemen as well as those from other
nations and Afghanistan itself.

Erythroxylum coca, cocaine, appears not because the
eradication efforts in Central and South America have a
distinctly warlike character but because of one story, that I
haven’t been able to confirm or disprove. This is the story
that, at the start of the first world war, the German high
command considered providing a daily ration of cocaine to the
German army both to stimulate their fighting and to suppress
appetite easing supply difficulties. Only when it was realised
that an adequate supply could not be guaranteed was Turkish
tobacco substituted as having similar depressant effects on
appetite even if it was not such a useful stimulant as cocaine.

Mention of
Nicotiana sylvestris, tobacco, brings us to the Second World
War. Though tobacco had to be imported, it was never rationed in
the UK or for British forces fighting abroad. It is said that
Churchill determined that the detrimental effect on morale would
be too great if people could not smoke when they wished but, it
could be, that, as with the Germans in WWI, the appetite
suppressant effects were considered desirable.

But I’ll finish by going back to Roman times and
Urtica dioica, stinging nettle. It is frequently claimed
that the Romans introduced this plant to Britain because they
knew the climate was cold and wanted to use it to beat
themselves and generate warmth. It is impossible to know if they
deliberately brought the plant or it just came along with them
as a result of seeds being in their kit. What is known is that
stinging nettles were known in northern Europe long before the
Romans arrived so there was no need to bring it.

But, if the soldiers did intentionally bring a plant intended
to provide a rather unpleasant solution to an expected
discomfort, it just reinforces the truth about armies and
soldiers. They always go to places they know little about to
face dangers they cannot imagine and they do it because they
wish to serve their country and community by fighting those who
would seek to destroy what they value.

And that is why they deserved to be remembered and not just
on this one day.